


"i don't think i know you"

by clickingkeyboards



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: Father Figures, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Priestley is StressedTM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 14:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29154711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: A determined dark-haired woman demands an audience with Priestley at his police station, asking for his help with a case as if she has known him for years. She reminds him depressingly of a young girl he once knew, but that is just wishful thinking: after all, Daisy Wells is dead at the bottom of the Nile river.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 21





	"i don't think i know you"

Priestley barely raised his eyes from his desk when a commotion broke out at the desk in the front. It was likely that troublesome man from the previous night, protesting the fact that his friend was locked for drunk and disorderly. If his officers couldn’t get the man under control, Priestley had a rather impressive shiner on his face from the drunk the previous night that was undeniable evidence of his crime.

Just as he was considering bursting into the front office and bellowing his most impressive commands, his forensics expert knocked on the door and opened it with a rueful expression on his face. “Sir? There’s a young woman here demanding an audience with you.”

“Show her in, anything to put off that paperwork.”

Suo nodded and stepped aside to show the young woman in. She had dark hair pinned up in curls, and wore a rather beautiful navy blue coat and a matching hat sprigged with silk flowers, her face heavily made up with rouge and red lipstick. “I need your help!” she burst out, not nearly as nervous as young women usually were when stepping into the office of an inspector. “I’m not technically supposed to ask for assistance but this idiotic clodhopper is going to get me killed and he’s stepping all over  _ my _ crime scene in his enormous boots and—”

“I’m sorry, miss,” Priestley replied faintly, suddenly reminded of his own Miss Wells, a brilliant and bright young woman taken before her time by a murderer who was no match for her wits, “but I don’t think I know you.”

With an astonished look on her face, as if his declaration was a terrible imposition to her, the young woman took off her hat and set it on the side table in his office, digging her nails into her hairline and bringing her beautiful brown hair away with her sweeping gesture. She wore a pale cap over her real hair, which she tugged off too, blonde curls tumbling down as she furiously glared at the detective inspector. “For goodness sake, Inspector! I’m  _ Daisy Wells _ !” Tossing the cap and the wig onto the side table along with her hat, she clasped her hands together and begged in a way that she wouldn’t have been caught dead doing just a few months ago. “Please can you help me, Priestley? I can’t lose this case, or I won’t get assigned the next one that I want.”

He could only stare and blink at her, at Daisy Wells, boldly alive in his office and seemingly unaware of the near-insurmountable grief that her death had caused him. “Why are you just staring at me like that?” she asked, peering into his face with scarlet lips bowed. “Why… why are you  _ crying _ ?”

Priestley looked up at the young woman standing so proudly in his office, and pinched the bridge of his nose, brushing tears from under his eyes. “Of course it’s you, Madam Super.”

It took Daisy several seconds to understand (which she would later deny). “You mean… you weren’t told? That I survived?”

“No,” he choked out, and Daisy stood and stared as he cried softly into his hand. Unsure what to do — she couldn’t hug a boy! — she took cautious steps over to his desk and gently set her hand over the top of his where it rested on a piece of paper. His hand was broad and darker than hers, and lined with age where hers was unblemished and pale.

“Well… I am very much alive. I asked for you to be told, you know. I did! I wrote a list of people I wanted to know, but I had to keep it very short. You were on the list right before Mr Wong!” She sounded full up with second-hand sadness and fury at her superiors. “I’m a real-life spy now, for the government!”

Taking a deep and shuddering breath, Priestley took out a handkerchief and wiped his eyes. “I’m alright, Madam Super. Now, what’s this case about?” It was quite a shock, to suddenly be surprised by Daisy Wells so alive in front of him, the bright young lady that he thought was dead, but he was determined to pull himself together.

Still looking rather concerned for Priestley, Daisy patted his hand and took a seat in the chair positioned in front of his desk. “Can I use your telephone? I need to find out who was responsible for you not being told.”

“Daisy, I don’t mind—” he began, and she scowled.

“Well,  _ I _ mind. Please?”

With a sigh, he turned in towards her and listened to her say, “Connect me to Felix Mountfitchet, seven-two-double four, please.”

“UNCLE FELIX!” she snapped when he answered. Priestley had half a mind to cover his ears. “Why on earth wasn’t Inspector Priestley informed that I survived?” She then rattled off a rather complex explanation of a case that seemed terribly dangerous indeed, ending with a furious description of how the man she had gone to for help hadn’t been told that she was alive.

The muffled reply was met with an almost shriek of, “What do you MEAN he was deemed of little consequence?”

“Daisy, he’s not exactly high-ranking or important—” said the man on the other end of the line, and it stung a little to hear that.

Daisy’s reply was absolutely incensed. “Well, he’s important to ME.”

Priestley felt his heart swell a little even as Daisy argued, eventually setting down the phone with a fierce threat of, “I will tell Aunt Lucy!”

“So, Madam Super, tell me about this case.”

Daisy bounced in her seat and grinned. “Okay, so! It’s really quite interesting…”

* * *

It was only when they were walking arm in arm back to the hotel that Daisy was staying at that her ‘death’ was mentioned again. She stopped him with a tug on his coat and crossly said, “I can’t stand to see you looking like somebody has stepped on you! You can’t look so incredibly sad if you’re going to come to my rescue and save this case!”

“I can’t help it, Daisy,” he said, and it felt so alien to regard this dark-haired adult woman as his own Daisy Wells. “Until only an hour ago, I was grieving your death.”

“You are ridiculous,” she said with a huff, and flung herself at him in an embrace. “I’m alive, and I’m not going to die again. Being dead is no fun at all.”

He laughed and wrapped his arms around her, blinking back tears that had sprung to his eyes again. “Of course you won’t, Madam Super, you’re almost invincible.”

“Almost?” she replied, sounding offended. “I am ENTIRELY immortal!”


End file.
